Air Force Eyeing C-130 Replacement Using New Vertical Lift Technology

June 8, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force is looking beyond the venerable C-130 for tactical airlift missions, saying the airplane no longer meets its needs for a future of dispersed operating locations where a runway may not be available.

Under typical questioning from members anxious about continuing C-130 missions for Guard and Reserve units in their districts, service “futurist” Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote told the House Armed Services seapower and projection forces panel the Air Force no longer views the C-130 as “well suited” to the future tactical airlift mission, and it needs to replace it with “new capabilities” involving vertical lift technologies.

“There’s been a lot of discussion about tactical airlift in the future, and I think it’s important for me, as the Air Force’s futurist, to say something about it,” said Hinote, whose title is deputy chief of staff for strategy, integration, and requirements.

In wargaming scenarios with China, and given the Air Force’s plan to island- and location-hop to avoid enemy missiles, “we run significant risk in [tactical] airlift, especially in conducting logistics under attack,” Hinote said. The “C-130 capability is not well-suited to address this risk,” he said. “That’s why we feel we need to retire a certain number of the older C-130s, while addressing this airlift risk in new ways, with new capabilities.”

In scenarios where logistics is under attack by China, Russia, or other adversaries, “what we see is that the capability for vertical lift is going to be really important for us; i.e., getting away from the fixed runway, so that we can do logistics in a way that is somewhat disruptive, and, frankly, a lot harder to target.”

Hinote said there are “quite a few efforts going on” with regard to battlefield vertical lift. The Army is pursuing a number of new rotary-craft programs, which Hinote said the Air Force is “following very closely,” but “at the very same time, we’re exploring vertical lift programs inside of our RDT&E as well.” Hinote did not forecast when the Air Force might start moving toward the new capability with a program of record.

In recent years, contractors have shown a variety of vertical-lift or short takeoff/vertical landing concepts for a future battlefield, from quad-tiltrotors to stealthy tactical transports with lift fans in their wings. Some have also promoted a new generation of airships for the lift mission; all oriented toward a future that weans the Air Force off long runways. Being able to operate from locations with no runway would multiply the locations the Air Force could operate from, thus multiplying the targeting problem for an adversary.

In a nod to the members’ concerns, Hinote said this new capability “may be a very important part of the reserve component, because the idea of vertical lift could also play a huge role in some of the responsibilities that …governors have” for humanitarian and disaster relief.

Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom, deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, told the panel the Air Force sees a near-term C-130 fleet of 255 airframes, which includes “163 C-130Js, either existing or on order, and 92 C-130Hs, which we’ll upgrade to the level we need to. We’ll move forward with that fleet,” he said.

However, he quickly added that “we’ve got to look beyond, in lift, especially tactical lift; we’ve got to look to the future. Because it’s not just C-130s, it’s other things we need to do.”

The Air Force’s vertical-lift portfolio includes the CV-22 tiltrotor, used for special operations missions; HH-60G and HH-60W helicopters, used for combat search and rescue; UH-1N helicopters for VIP transport and missile field support and security; and the new MH-139 Grey Wolf, which will replace the UH-1N.

After Scaled-Back 2021, Air Force Military Construction Gets a Big Bump in ’22 Budget

June 8, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

A year after submitting its smallest military construction and family housing budget in a half-decade, the Department of the Air Force submitted a 2022 budget request that marked a return to years past—and a substantial increase overall.

The 2022 figure of roughly $2.8 billion marks a 75 percent increase from the $1.6 billion enacted in 2021 and is more than double the $1.27 billion requested last year. And based off total dollars, it is the largest year-over-year increase in the military construction and family housing funding requests for the department in more than a decade.

The Air Force officials had previously indicated there would be a “significant” increase from 2021’s figures. On May 19, Brig. Gen. William H. Kale III, deputy chief of staff for logistics, engineering, and force protection, told House appropriators the MILCON and family housing budget would “return to a level similar to funding requests from previous year.”

In fiscal 2020, the department requested $2.68 billion but was appropriated $5.2 billion to aid repairs to bases heavily damaged by natural disasters. In 2019, the amount requested was $2.17 billion, the amount enacted was $2.24 billion. And, in 2018, $2.38 billion was requested and $2.4 billion was enacted.

The increase in funding for 2022 is needed as the department faces a $30 billion backlog in maintenance and repairs, with many of the Air Force’s facilities falling apart as funds for repairs have been limited due to budget constraints.

Yet even with that massive backlog, the department must also modernize its facilities to keep up with new technologies, weapons, and aircraft being introduced.

“It’s almost double from the current level, but a lot of this is stuff that has been expected or long overdue,” said Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis and the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “And in particular, just thumbing through the MILCON, about $1.4 billion of it is for what they classify as new construction and facilities, so it’s not keeping up with current facilities, rehabbing them, or anything like that. It’s for new missions that need to be supported.”

Kale said May 19 that the budget would prioritize modernizing the infrastructure needed to support the new Ground Based Strategic Deterrent and the B-21 Raider bomber programs. Indeed, a full $431 million in the 2022 budget is directed towards facilities for the GBSD and B-21.

The B-21 program in particular would be supported by $333 million in funds, all at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, for facilities to house and repair the aircraft, as well as simulators and training buildings for crew members. Other beddown costs include $98 million for the GBSD program, $67 million at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, and the rest at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

Other new programs are also supported by tens of millions of dollars requested for needed infrastructure. There is $160 million dedicated to building a three-bay depot maintenance hangar for the KC-46 at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, and another $160 million spread across five different construction projects all related to the F-35. There is also $20 million directed for F-16 beddown costs, as well as $11 million for the C-130.

Beddown Projects Funded in 2022 MILCON Request

Fiscal 2022 Beddown Projects	FY 22 PB Request
Beddowns
B-21 (Air Force)—6 projects	$333 million
KC-46 (Air Force)—1 project	$160 million
F-35A (Air Force)—4 projects	$129 million
F-35A (Air National Guard)—1 project	$31 million
F-16 (Air National Guard)—2 projects	$20 million
C-130 (Air National Guard)—1 project	$11 million
Nuclear
GBSD (Air Force)—3 projects	$98 million

Source: Department of the Air Force budget documents

Kale said one of the department’s other top priorities for the MILCON budget was supporting combatant commanders’ requirements, especially in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. And in the 2022 budget, there is $730 million requested for facilities outside the U.S., including $349 million in Japan alone. Nearly half of those funds in Japan would go towards constructing a Helicopter Rescue Operations Maintenance Hangar at Kadena Air Base.

“That’s an example of something that is a bill you’re eventually going to have to pay,” Harrison said. “In terms of thinking about how to deter China, though, it is a bit questionable whether or not you want to be doubling down on bases in Japan, because they’re very much within the threat ring, and in an actual confrontation with China, you really need to have bases in the region, [that] are just outside that threat ring.”

In Europe, the 2022 budget includes $264 million in appropriations requests, including $174 million in the U.K.—$80 million would go towards new facilities for F-35As, while $94 million would be for a storage facility in support of the European Deterrence Initiative.

But even if the 2022 budget does feature a return to the funding levels of years prior, a significant backlog of repairs will still weigh on the department.

“Really going on about a decade, we’ve been short-changing MILCON,” Harrison said. “And they’ve been doing that just because of budget pressures, that there are other pressing areas within the Air Force and DOD’s overall budget that at the end of the day, some of these maintenance items are things that can be deferred. But you can’t defer them indefinitely.”

How President Joe Biden’s administration and the Pentagon hope to address that issue remains to be seen, but Harrison did mark a certain emphasis in the budget documents he reviewed.

“It seems like their language in talking about MILCON has shifted to use the word infrastructure a lot more,” Harrison said. “And I can’t help but wonder if that is a reflection of the priorities of the administration, that they want to be seen as focusing on infrastructure.” Biden has proposed a $2 trillion infrastructure plan for the general public, and Harrison noted that some of those funds could go towards military construction if the projects are considered infrastructure.

Crew Ordered to Crash MQ-9 in Africa in June 2020 After ‘Catastrophic’ Fuel Leak

June 8, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

An MQ-9 suffered a catastrophic fuel leak while flying in an undisclosed area of Africa, prompting the crew to crash the Reaper as hard as possible into the ground to avoid a successful recovery of the aircraft, according to an Air Force investigation released June 4.

The MQ-9, tail number 08-4051, assigned to the 162nd Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard and operated by the 214th Attack Squadron Mission Control Element at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, was flying a mission in support of U.S. Africa Command, though the Accident Investigation Board report does not provide details on the mission or location.

During the flight, the ground control station began to display warnings that fuel was low, and the aircraft’s crew started looking for the issue so they could clear the fault. The crew found the fuel level was “well short” of expected levels, and the pilot asked the mission crew commander to help.

The sensor operator used the aircraft’s main camera to sweep the aircraft, and discovered it was “severely leaking fuel from the fuselage,” the report states.

About 43 minutes after first discovering the issue, the MQ-9 began to return to base at maximum speed, but the crew realized “the fuel leak was catastrophic” and the Reaper couldn’t make it.

The Combined Air Operations Center directed the commander and pilot to “crash the aircraft, and to do so in a way that would minimize chances of a successful recovery effort,” the report states. With fuel exhausted, the pilot “controlled the glide of the aircraft to optimize the impact point” while increasing speed.

According to the investigation, the aircraft was destroyed at a loss of $11.29 million. It was lost in an undisclosed location and not recovered.

The investigation found that the cause of the crash was the fuel leak from the Forward Electric Fuel Heater. Additionally, the investigation found maintainers did not completed a time compliant technical order to fix a known MQ-9 deficiency with the fuel system, the design of the aircraft’s fuel detection system, and a lack of guidance and tolerances for the fuel system contributed to the mishap.

Afghanistan Withdrawal ‘Halfway Finished’ as US, NATO Look for New Ways to Advise

June 7, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

U.S. forces are about halfway done with the planned withdrawal from Afghanistan as the U.S. and NATO pledge to continue their support for the country in new ways.

U.S. Central Command boss Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. said June 7 that with so much progress already, “we will make the September deadline to complete the full withdrawal from Afghanistan.”

McKenzie also noted the U.S. will maintain an embassy in Afghanistan and will continue to support the Afghan forces, saying CENTCOM is “working now with friends in the region to establish” the capability to “go after al-Qaeda and ISIS from over the horizon from other locations in the theater.” This would be in addition to existing capabilities, such as the B-52s that are deployed to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, and aircraft carriers currently operating in the region.

The withdrawal is being conducted “in concert with our NATO allies and partners,” McKenzie said. Also on June 7, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III to prepare for the upcoming NATO summit later this month, which will focus largely on the future in Afghanistan.

During a brief appearance at the Pentagon, Stoltenberg said that even though the military mission in the country is ending, “we will continue to provide support to Afghanistan” with a continued civilian presence, continued funding for Afghan forces, and NATO is “also looking into the possibility of providing out-of-country training for Afghan forces,” Stoltenberg said.

Austin said the withdrawal process is “proceeding well” and that the U.S. “remains committed to assisting our Resolute Support partners as they, too, retrograde.”

Protecting key infrastructure in the country, such as the international airport in Kabul, to enable a sustained diplomatic presence is now a top priority. McKenzie said there are advanced plans for this but did not provide specifics. Stoltenberg also said NATO is looking at ways to help Afghan forces maintain the airport and other key locations.

Despite Golden Horde Success, USAF Not Ready to Make Technology Program of Record

June 7, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The Golden Horde Vanguard program yielded good results but will not advance into a program of record just yet, Air Force Materiel Command boss Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr. told reporters.

The Air Force’s “Golden Horde” Vanguard program recently demonstrated Small Diameter Bombs receiving and interpreting new instructions mid-flight and collaborating with each other to strike designated targets. Air Force Research Laboratory boss Maj. Gen. Heather L. Pringle said at the time Golden Horde is completely changing the way the Air Force thinks about munitions. And, though Bunch agreed the demo was a success, he said it will not “immediately” turn into a program of record.

“We haven’t finalized” what will be done with the technology, he said. The program was a success at demonstrating collaboration and networking, and the next step is to take that knowledge and put it into simulations run by the Air Force Munitions Research Labs to “bring in new ideas and capabilities” about how it might be fielded, he said during a June 4 Defense Writers Group virtual event.

Further experimentation will be done virtually before it is done “in the open air,” he said. The Air Force will be looking for “what gain” the system may offer. The demos have provided a technical baseline that can be modeled, and that’s less costly and “labor intensive” than using real munitions with a host of people, aircraft, and ranges, Bunch said.

Golden Horde may become a program of record later, but “not all Vanguards” will become fielded capabilities, he noted. However, in this instance, a Major Command and various Program Executive Officers were involved, so all could see the technology and its potential.

“There may be certain parts of what we found in Golden Horde that we can [apply] in another weapon or system, but in and of itself, we’re not going to make a program of record,” he said.

F-35s from Four Nations Integrate in Italian Exercise

June 7, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

F-35s from four nations are coming together in a large-scale exercise in Italy, during which the fifth-generation fighters will fly alongside several fourth-generation jets.

USAF F-35s from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and F-16s from Aviano Air Base, Italy, are flying in exercise Falcon Strike 21 at Amendola Air Base, Italy, June 7-15. They will join U.S. Marine Corps F-35Bs, along with F-35As and F-35Bs from the Italian Air Force, F-35Bs from the United Kingdom Royal Air Force, and F-35Is from the Israeli Air Force.

Additional participating aircraft include the Italian Gulfstream G550, F-2000 Eurofighter Typhoon, Panavia Tornado, AMX International aircraft, Alenia Aermacchi T-346, and MQ-1s.

The Italian-hosted exercise “will provide multinational forces the opportunity to test and improve shared technical and tactical knowledge, while conducting complex air operations in a multinational, joint force environment,” U.S. Air Forces in Europe said in a release.

The exercise is the latest in a series of events aimed at integrating U.S. and international F-35s. Last month, two Italian air force F-35s operated out of Aviano as part of exercise Astral Knight 2021. During that exercise, USAF crew chiefs from multiple units performed cross-service actions such as hot-pit refueling and interoperation servicing with Italian F-35s and personnel, according to an Aviano release.

Earlier in May, the Hill F-35s flew in exercise Atlantic Trident in France, which also focused on integrating fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft, and included participation from the United Kingdom.

New Commander Takes Over 10th Air Force

June 7, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

Maj. Gen. Bryan P. Radliff on June 4 took command of 10th Air Force, one of three Reserve numbered air forces. The 10th Air Force oversees Air Force Reserve Command’s strike, ISR, space, cyber, and special operations assets.

Radliff took command from Maj. Gen. Brian K. Borgen, who had overseen the NAF since May 2019.

“We have fantastic guidance and priorities from our leadership, which have informed the current priorities set by Maj. Gen. Borgen, and I see no need to adjust those,” Radliff said during a ceremony at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas, according to a release. “We will continue to focus on readiness, caring for Airmen and families, and developing resilient leaders.”

Radliff previously served as the mobilization assistant to the commander of 1st Air Force (Air Forces Northern), and before that, he was the mobilization assistant to the commander of 12th Air Force. He returns to 10th Air Force, having previously been the vice commander from 2015 to 2016. He’s a command pilot with more than 3,500 hours in the F-15C, F-16C, F-22, and T-38.

The Air Force has not announced Borgen’s next assignment. During the ceremony, he received the Distinguished Service Medal from AFRC boss Lt. Gen. Richard W. Scobee, himself a former commander of 10th Air Force.

“With Borgen as commander, 10th Air Force has provided unrelenting mission success,” Scobee said, according to the release. “He has taken the Air Force Reserve priorities and applied them to your 17 wings. Most impressive is that he has taken care of our Airmen and their families in spite of resources shortfalls, some of the harshest conditions, unprecedented churning of combat operations in a global pandemic, and he placed resiliency as his top priority and it shows in the Airmen. He is the best of who we are.”

Munitions Take Hit in 2022 Budget As USAF Keeps Eye on High-End Fight

June 7, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Funding for munitions may have taken a hit in the Air Force’s 2022 budget request, but Air Force Materiel Command boss Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr. insists munitions are not serving as the billpayer for other parts of the USAF budget.

The workhorse Joint Direct Attack Munition was cut by more than 80 percent over enacted 2021 levels, while Hellfire would be reduced 74 percent, Small Diameter Bomb 1 would drop almost 60 percent, and Sidewinder and AMRAAM dogfight missiles would decline 27 percent and 37 percent, respectively.

However, Bunch said the “pipeline” will remain open for more production if needed—and Foreign Military Sales customers are being encouraged to buy—but the savings are being used to increase purchases of weapons for a “high-end fight.”

“In the last few years … we built up those stockpiles,” so not as many munitions were needed, and the expenditure rate has fallen with the disengagement from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, Bunch said. The savings were instead plowed into “high-end fight” weapons such as the JASSM-ER and Air-Launched Rapid Response hypersonic missile.

The Air Force may change the way it buys munitions, but not necessarily by returning to the leader-follower, dual-source methods of the 1980s, during the last Cold War, Bunch explained.

Instead, the Air Force wants to buy things “in a digital manner,” in which the service owns the technical baseline and can “insert new technology or a new component if our industrial partner can’t do something, and we should be able to surge” at need, Bunch said. “We’re already doing a couple of examples of that with steel manufacturers building [bomb] cases.” Digital acquisition will allow open architectures such that new technology can rapidly replace the old, he said.

“‘Owning’ is a strong word,” Bunch said, “but I want to get the technical part to the point that if we needed to make a change, to go another way to get a component in … that we can do that. And that is part of what we’re trying to do, is get that competition and move at the speed of relevance.” The approach will be applied to airplanes and other systems as well as munitions.

Across the command, he said, “we’re very focused on speed with discipline,” meaning that acquisition moves “at the speed we need, but in a disciplined manner, so we’ve got the right data rights and … models, and we understand what we’re putting on contract.”

This is “how we need to be doing all of our acquisitions. It almost needs to be the exception if we’re not going to go down that path.”

The Air Force also will “continue to invest” in the AGM-183 ARRW with an eye toward “first operational capability …in ’22 or early ’23,” Bunch said, which would indicate a slight delay.

Air Force Seeks Quicker ABMS Increments Despite Reduced Funding

June 6, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Despite reduced funding for the Advanced Battle Management System in the fiscal 2022 budget request, the Air Force is aiming to field increments of the system more quickly, said Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr., head of Air Force Materiel Command.

The Air Force only received $158.5 million in 2021—half its requested amount for ABMS—and it only asked for half the amount it planned to request in 2022 ($204 million).

“We did get some money taken away, and we weren’t able to do everything exactly the way we expected to do last year,” Bunch told reporters during a virtual June 4 Defense Writers Group. This drove the Air Force to cancel one of its demonstration events, he said.

The Air Force will “look at … putting out more of these increments in a regular battle rhythm, so we’re more integrated together and we share that information in a more timely manner, and we’re pushing more things out to the field quicker,” he said. The first increment will be a communications gateway that can roll onto a KC-46 tanker and provide “additional situational awareness for the KC-46, and others, but link-in the F-22 and F-35 [with] data sharing, and create that bridge so we can share and communicate better.”

Bunch did not directly explain why the amount planned to be requested had been reduced or whether he felt the ABMS program is “struggling.”

The desire to put out better-defined increments more quickly was behind designating the Rapid Capabilities Office as the “integrating” program executive office, Bunch explained. “We’ve picked the first increment and now they’re working with the KC-46 office mobility and training Program Executive Office to get that to happen,” he said.

The Air Force will also do better at “outlining what we’re doing and pushing increments out,” he said. The service will continue to do ABMS experimentation—what the service until recently called “on-ramps”—to “look at the art of the possible” for capabilities that will be included in future increments, Bunch said. The new increments will be fielded more regularly than they have been.

Overall, “I think we looked at how we were putting it out in the field and we restructured our timelines there, to make it more effective, and deliver more capability in a regular pattern,” he said.